The ROK s Nuclear Energy Development and Spent Fuel Management Plans and Options

Transcription

1 The ROK s Nuclear Energy Development and Spent Fuel Management Plans and Options Jungmin KANG Visiting Professor, KAIST Presentation given at 2012 Resilience and Security of Spent Fuel in East Asia WORKING GROUP MEETING Australian Embassy (19th floor, Kyobo Building), Seoul, ROK April 13-15,

2 Status & Prospects of Nuclear Power Figure. NPPs sites in the ROK

3 Table. Current and planned nuclear power in the ROK Site Unit Type Capacity (MWe) Initial Operation Kori Status & Prospects of Nuclear Power (cont) Shin-Kori Yonggwang Ulchin Wolsong Wolsong Kori-1 Kori-2 Kori-3 Kori-4 Shin-Kori-1 Shin-Kori-2 Shin-Kori-3 Shin-Kori-4 Shin-Kori-5 Shin-Kori-6 Shin-Kori-7 Shin-Kori-8 Yonggwang-1 Yonggwang-2 Yonggwang-3 Yonggwang-4 Yonggwang-5 Yonggwang-6 Ulchin-1 Ulchin-2 Ulchin-3 Ulchin-4 Ulchin-5 Ulchin-6 Shin-Ulchin-1 Shin-Ulchin-2 Shin-Ulchin-3 Shin-Ulchin-4 Wolsong-1 Wolsong-2 Wolsong-3 Wolsong-4 Shin-Wolsong-1 Shin-Wolsong-2 CANDU CANDU CANDU CANDU Apr Jul Sept Apr Dec Dec Sept Sept Dec Dec Jun Jun Aug Jun Mar Jan Apr Oct Sept Sept Aug Dec Jul Jun Dec Dec Jun Jun Apr Jul Jul Oct Mar Jan. 2013

4 Reactors at Kori Figure. The Kori nuclear power plants site (Google Earth, October 10, 2010) 4

5 Reactors at Yonggwang Figure. The Yonggwang nuclear power plants site (Google Earth, October 10, 2010) 5

6 Reactors at Ulchin Figure. The Ulchin nuclear power plants site (Google Earth, October 10, 2010) 6

7 Reactors at Wolsong Figure. The Wolsong nuclear power plants site (Google Earth, October 10, 2010) 7

8 Status & Prospects of Nuclear Power (cont) Kori site: 6 s in operation; Shin-Kori site: 6 s under construction Yonggwang site: 6 s in operation Ulchin site: 6 s in operation; 4 s under construction Wolsung site: 4 CANDUs in operation; 1 in operation; 1 under construction # of (GWe) 18 (17.9) 27 (28.7) 35 (39.9) # of CANDU (GWe) 4 (2.8) 4 (2.8) 4 (2.8) # of NPPs (GWe) 22 (20.7) 31 (31.5) 39 (42.7)

9 Status & Prospects of Nuclear Power (cont) GWe 35 Electricity capacity (GWe) Year Figure. Installed nuclear capacity in South Korea( ) 9

10 Radioactive Waste Management Act Has been effective since Jan 1, Establishing a new organization and fund for radioactive waste management. Korea Radioactive Waste Management Company (KRMC) Radioactive Waste Management Fund 10

11 Radioactive Waste Management Organizations (Quoted from a presentation material of Jongwon Choi of KAERI on Nov. 4, 2010) 11

12 National Policy on Spent Fuel At its 253rd meeting in 2004, the Atomic Energy Committee (AEC) announced that national policy for spent fuel management would be decided later in consideration of progress of domestic and international technology development, and that spent fuel would be stored at a reactor site by 2016 under KHNP s responsibility. Since South Korea has not decided whether to directly dispose of or recycle spent fuel, currently, it has no national plan on geologic disposal of spent fuel either. 12

13 Generation of Spent Fuel and Shortage of Inventory of Spent Fuels Spent Fuel Storage Capacity Discharging about 290 metric tons of heavy metal (thm) of spent fuels from 16 s per year and about 380 thm of HWR spent fuels from 4 HWRs per year Site Reactor type # of reactors Inventory of spent fuel (thm) as of the end of 2009 Kori 4 1,762 Ulchin 6 1,401 Yonggwang 6 1,704 Wolsong HWR 4 5,894 Shortage of On-site Spent Fuel Storage Capacities Interim storage of spent fuel is a hot issue as its at-reactor spent fuel storage pools become saturated. KHNP, a utility company argues that the storage pools at its three s sites, Kori, Ulchin and Yonggwang are projected to be full by 2016, 2018 and 2021 respectively while its HWRs site, Wolsong is projected to be full by 2017 considering current on-site dry storage. It has been said that on-site spent fuel storage expansion is challenge due to an anticipated strong opposition by local communities. 13

14 Projections of Spent Fuel TOTAL Inventory (thm) CANDU Year Figure. Cumulative inventory of spent fuel generation in South Korea ( ) 14

15 Spent Fuel Storage at Kori When KHNP has stated that the spent fuel pools at Kori will be full in 2016, it just had considered intra-site transshipment of spent fuel among pools of old 4 reactors, i.e., Kori unit 1 to unit 4 on the site. The old spent fuel in the pools of the old 4 reactors can be shifted to the pools of new two reactors, i.e., Shin-Kori unit 1 and unit 2 being built on the same site. If implemented, this extends the saturation year from 2016 to

16 Spent Fuel Storage at Ulchin When KHNP has stated that the spent fuel pools at Ulchin will be full in 2018, it just had considered intra-site transshipment of spent fuel among pools of old 6 reactors, i.e., Ulchin unit 1 to unit 6 on the site. The old spent fuel in the pools of the old 6 reactors can be shifted to the pools of new four reactors, i.e., Shin-Ulchin unit 1 to unit 4 being built on some of the same site. If implemented, this extends the saturation year from 2018 to

17 Spent Fuel Storage at Yonggwang KHNP has stated that the spent fuel pools at Yonggwang will be full in 2021, considering re-racking of storage pools. There is no plan of new deployment of NPPs at Yonggwang at least by

18 Spent Fuel Storage at Wolsong According to a law entitled Special Act on Support for Areas Hosting Low and Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste (LILW) Disposal Facility in 2005, spent fuel related facilities cannot be built in the local area that hosts the LILW site, containing Wolsong site. Some of South Korean nuclear experts argue that it means that no more dry storage facilities are to be built after 2017 when current dry storage will be full. However, Korea Radioactive Waste Management Corporation (KRMC) argues that those dry storage facilities at Wolsong are tentative ones, not for interim storage that are banned by the special Act of LILW. KHNP expanded capacities of dry storage at Wolsong by 680 thm in 1990, 907 thm in 1998, 680 thm in 2002, 1134 thm in 2006 and 3528 thm in February Whether or not dry storage facilities at Wolsong violate the special Act of LILW is still controversial and needs to be clear. 18

19 Dry Storage Facilities at Wolsong Figure. Concrete silo and MACSTOR/KN-400 at Wolsong (Google Earth, October 10, 2010) 19

20 Concrete Silo Concrete Silo at Wolsong Storage capacity: 10.4 thm Out diameter: 3.1 m Height: 6.5 m 300 concrete silos (3,120 thm) have been installed at Wolsong since

21 MACSTOR/KN-400 at Wolsong MACSTOR/KN-400 Storage capacity: 461 thm Dimension: 22 m (L) x 12.5 m (W) x 7.5 m (H) Height: 6.5 m 7 MACSTOR/KN-400 modules (3,227 thm) have been installed at Wolsong since

22 Current, Planned and Potential Spent Fuel Storage Capacity through

23 Modified Saturation Time of Spent Fuel Storage Alternatives and Roadmap of Spent Fuel Management in South Korea on Aug. 19, 2011 Performed by an expert group composed of members of South Korea s nuclear establishment (Korean Nuclear Society, Korean Radioactive Waste Society and Green Korea 21) The storage pools at sites, Kori, Ulchin and Yonggwang, Wolsong are projected to be full by 2028, 2028, 2024 and 2025, considering re-racking and transshipment between NPPs at s sites and installing two additional MACSTOR/KN-400 modules at Wolsong. 23

24 KAERI s Plan on Pyroprocessing and Fast Reactors (Quoted from a presentation material of Hansoo Lee of KAERI in 2010) 24

25 Concluding Remarks Interim storage of spent fuel would be key factor affecting nuclear fuel cycle activities and development in the ROK in the coming years. A 10-year US-ROK joint study on pyroprocessing, which has started in 2012, would affect future nuclear fuel cycle activities and development in the ROK. 25